The homelessness crisis demands compassion, not fear

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Long before I moved to Vancouver, I had heard rumblings about Main and Hastings, described to me as a corner of iniquity. It was where people who were homeless would congregate, and even – the warnings went – do drugs outdoors, in broad daylight.

Living here, I’ve had many occasions to walk through or drive slowly by (the speed limit was reduced to 30 kilometres an hour because locals often simply walk out onto the road). I have never felt unsafe.

Sad? Yes. Scared? No.

On Tuesday, RCMP Constable Shaelyn Yang was stabbed to death after an altercation with a man living in a tent in a Burnaby park. This is nowhere near Main and Hastings, and it was not, as was initially reported, an encampment. There was one man, in one tent. Jongwon Ham, who had already been facing previous assault charges, has since been charged with first-degree murder.

This is a tragedy. Constable Yang, 31, was a mental-health and homeless-outreach officer who had been on the force for three years. She was a wife, a daughter, a sister.

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The killing has led to more calls to address the Lower Mainland’s severe homelessness problem. But I worry that, rather than demand the correct, humane response, there will be a cry for a corrective that’s motivated by fear, not compassion.

The results of last weekend’s municipal election in Vancouver could be viewed as a vote for fear, and against a mayor and a council that allowed the situation around homelessness and public safety to spiral out of control.

The new Mayor-elect, Ken Sim, promised to bring in 100 new police officers and 100 new “mental-health nurses” to deal with the crisis. (After winning the election, he told reporters he is confident the Vancouver Police Department will be able to find the new officers he campaigned on.)

But this won’t cut it. The focus should not be solely on how to police the problem – it should be about how to help the afflicted.

We need proper supportive housing. Something like BC Housing’s 13-storey project planned for the west side of Vancouver, near a future SkyTrain station, with 129 single-occupancy units for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Many residents from that Kitsilano community balked at this proposal, writing letters of opposition or speaking against it at contentious public hearings; there are schools and playgrounds and parks nearby, they warned. Now that the project has been approved, a group of local residents has gone to court to try to have the council decision rescinded. I can only imagine that this week’s tragedy will further fuel their opposition.

But the homeless encampments that have been springing up at parks around Vancouver these past few years – at Oppenheimer Park, Crab Park, Strathcona Park – have also been close to schools and playgrounds. They just happened to be on the city’s east side.

These encampments, created out of desperation, have had a severe effect on the people living nearby, with an increase in reported break-ins and threats. But they’re not nearly as severe as the effects on the people who have to live this way.

The tarps and tents and misery now stretch for several blocks along East Hastings. The conditions are appalling and dangerous, with a series of recent fires in the area.

On Wednesday, as volunteers handed out fresh fruit and vegetables to Downtown Eastside residents, I watched a young man walk up and down the street, trying to sell other locals a small umbrella “to protect you from the wind.” I thought about the heavy rains in the forecast, the inadequate umbrella, the inadequate response to this humanitarian crisis in our backyard.

At a restaurant across the street, a four-ounce Wagyu steak goes for $100. A couple of blocks away, you can pick up a pair of ankle boots for $499.

A provincial government that can afford to give $50-million for a new Vancouver Art Gallery (in addition to the $50-million it has already given) and was willing to spend $789-million on a new provincial museum (which was halted after public outcry) surely can come up with the funds to help the hundreds of people who are living like this.

And surely the province and city can come up with a serious plan to create safe living spaces for people whose mental-health and addiction issues have driven them to life on the sidewalk, with their possessions in garbage bins marked “personal storage” and little printed signs stating “this tent is my home.”

There has to be a compassionate way to house and help people that does not involve simply seizing their stuff and moving them along to some other street corner or park. I want to live in a safe city that not only protects those of us lucky enough to be housed, but takes care of everyone else too.

And yes: please put one (or more) of these supportive housing projects in my (eastside) backyard. (Not that I have a backyard, but, you know.) It would be a lot better than the sidewalk or a park.

I have an idea for a name for one of these residences, with her family’s approval: the Shaelyn Yang Centre.